Nellie Durfee (American, 1876–1976)
Cottages in Nocturnal Landscape, 1930
Oil on canvas
Dimensions unavailable
Signature: lower right "N. Durfee"
Inscription: on stretcher, “Given to Miss M.M. Bowen with Love Oct. 5 1930 Nellie Durfee”
This intimate nocturne offers a rare glimpse into the work of Nellie Durfee, a Los Angeles painter whose artistic identity has long been eclipsed by the fame of her residence, the Durfee mansion. Born in Tennessee in 1876, Durfee settled in Los Angeles by the mid-1910s and studied at the Otis Art Institute. Her membership in the California Art Club places her within the circle of Southern California artists active during the early decades of the twentieth century.
In this painting, modest cottages emerge softly from the enveloping quiet of evening. Durfee’s handling of light and shadow suggests a sensitivity to atmosphere over topographical precision, allowing the scene to feel at once observed and remembered. The work reflects a lyrical, private mode of painting, one more concerned with mood and stillness than with spectacle.
Few works by Durfee are presently documented, making this signed and inscribed canvas especially important. It stands as tangible evidence of an artist whose life in painting survives today only in scattered references and rare surviving works.
